Tuesday, March 23, 2010

250 Words - A Fantasy Conversation at the Bike Shop

"Excuse me sir."

I look up from the hub overhaul I am deep into. "Oh sorry, I didn't see you come in. How can I help?"

"Do you work on bikes besides selling them?"

I glance down at the wheel I have apart not six feet away from the customer. I look at my hands coated in tired worn out grease from the hub. I feel the tight confines of the work apron I have on. Instead of a smart ass answer I smile and say, "Well yes. Yes, we work on bikes. But it depends I guess."

"Depends on what?" The customer looks perplexed.

"It depends on whether you are a politician or not. Are you?"

The customer is confused now. A flash of annoyance crosses their face as they search for the meaning of this question. Not finding any answer, they recover their calm and answer. "Why yes, I am indeed a politician."

"Well then, I will promise to work on your bike but only after you have paid me money to make that promise. Ultimately, I will disappoint you by letting it sit untouched or make it worse than when it came in. When you call about its status, I will tell you it is almost ready. After weeks of no action, you will figure out I never had any intention of fixing your bike."

"But how can you take my money and not do the job?"

I look at this clueless politician and just say, "Exactly."

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Just one of the daydreams I have from time to time.......See Ya..............

6 comments:

I really enjoyed this imagined talk. It is so spot on about the political system.

Also, I wanted to say I really like the photograph of you holding the bicycle wheel. It is a classic sort of "artistic" style picture that tells a story beyond its subject. You can sense a lot of information not explicitly stated. While I am not a photographer, I appreciate looking at photography (hence the many photoblog links listed on my blog). So, I am used to looking at a lot of "artsy" images. And, I think this one is truly a very good image.

Finally, a few posts below, you have a camping photo. I cannot tell from the image, but it appears you may be smoking (as I suspect may be the intent, from the last line of the essay). Or is it simply a rumpled and stray part of your beard that simply looks that way in the small image? Either way, it would be interesting to hear the back story behind that image if you are willing to discuss it.

You know if the majority of the people in the country could ever rally around and idea of just keeping those criminals in check and voting them out of office when they failed I believe things would get better.

The problem is that we are at best divide and at worst some of us are dangerously delusional (teabaggers). So the politicians just do the old divide and conquer.

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CRUM

Married and finally used to the empty nest syndrome. I endeavor to put one foot in front of the other without tripping. I just recently sold my bike shop in a nearby town and am free to .................